When Jeanie Reed started seeing people in the garden who weren’t there, a tree growing in her living room and snow falling in her bedroom she thought she was going mad.

Frightened that she was losing her mind and of what others would think she kept the hallucinations to herself, for a year.

But eventually the sometimes terrifying visions became too much to deal with alone so Mrs Reed, who is blind, told Jim, her husband of almost 50 years.

He instantly reassured her she wasn’t mad and remembered reading something about people with sight problems seeing things which aren’t real.

He contacted Kent Association for the Blind who told the couple Mrs Reed was not insane, but had Charles Bonnet syndrome.

The condition affects people with serious sight loss and usually people who have lost their sights later in life. It results in visual hallucinations, with sufferers seeing patterns, scenes, people, animals or buildings.

Although a Swiss philospher named Charles Bonnet first described the condition in 1760 when he noticed his grandfather, who was almost blind, saw patterns, figures, birds and buildings which were not there, it is still largely unknown, partly because people experiencing it don’t talk about their problems from fear of being thought of as mentally ill.

For this reason Mr and Mrs Reed, of Morehall Avenue, Folkestone, want to spread the word about the condition and to set up a help group for sufferers.

Mrs Reed, 69, who lost her sight in her late forties and has been suffering with the syndrome for the past three years, said: “It’s frightening, as it’s so real. I didn’t want to tell anyone was as I thought they’d say I was mad. It’s awful and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

“Only someone who has experienced it could really help someone else who has it.”

Mr Reed said: “Saying you have the condition is the biggest hurdle. Talking about it brings some relief.”

Mrs Reed had her first hallucinations while on holiday in Turkey. She said: “I saw a wall full of diamonds and shapes and bits and pieces. It was weird. I knew it wasn’t right.

“When we returned home I saw people in the garden, a tree growing in the corner of the room, a man sitting in the living room who wasn’t my husband. I saw all these faces and things on the floor.

“I thought I was going round the bend. I was scared to go outside because of what I might see.

“Sometimes it’s nice when I see pictures, but then I see horrible things, like three gravestones or I’m walking through woods. It’s like you’re dreaming but you don’t wake up and it’s there, day in, day out.”

Mr Reed said: “Everything the brain sees it remembers - it’s the best computer in the world. Data goes in through our eyes and the brain keeps it in the background. When data stops coming in through the eyes the brain puts its own pictures in. Jeanie saw a Victorian woman - this was someone she had seen in a film many years ago.”

There are more than 1,000 blind or partially sighted people in Shepway. It is not known how many of these might develop the syndrome.

uE06E To find out more visit the RNIB web site at www.rnib.org.uk or contact the charity on 0845 766 9999. Or contact. Or contact Kent Association for the Blind on 01622 691357.